How you can benefit from using labels within the Pomfort ecosystem

6 min read
How you can benefit from using labels within the Pomfort ecosystem

Taking inspiration from labels in the analog world, digital products adopted this generic concept for their specific purposes. 

As with labels on bananas or shirts, which carry manufacturer names or additional product information, labels generally help transport more details about the items they are assigned to – a kind of custom metadata that allows you to structure and differentiate them.  

Our products Livegrade and Silverstack, also let you add customizable labels to either shots (Livegrade) or clips (Silverstack). In addition, our cloud application ShotHub enables you to transmit labels for look matching in Silverstack. This blog post explains how to make the most out of this handy feature by highlighting essential practicalities and key benefits of using labels within the Pomfort ecosystem. 

Using labels in Livegrade to structure your shot library

Livegrade allows tagging shots with color labels and a customizable label name. 

Thus, the feature creates flexible ways to categorize shots based on production requirements or personal preferences. It also enables you to structure your shot library for a better overview and advanced filtering options.

Let’s take a closer look at how labels can actually help on set: Within large projects, the DIT often needs to save numerous shots for various use cases. For example, after having graded a shot with the DOP, the DIT usually saves it as a base look for a specific scene. Thus, the look can then be applied as a starting point to all shots of a scene.

In other instances, a shot may only be saved as a reference still to enable comparison with other scenes in terms of consistency. Hence, it can become challenging to keep track of the different shots in your library. Using labels adds structure and lets you navigate to a needed shot more easily. When working with on-set HDR and SDR monitoring, labels can also help categorize looks depending on their output color space. Being able to customize each label name creates endless possibilities to incorporate them into digital imaging workflows. 

How you can benefit from using labels within the Pomfort ecosystem
Filter shot library using labels in smart groups

Labeled shots in the library open up new possibilities for sorting and filtering large projects. Additionally, the color label dot creates an eye-catching visual for differentiation.Using the labels as a hierarchy level in smart groups provides a better overview and precise filtering options when preparing an export of shots or reports.

Easier usage and higher efficiency of labels can be achieved by applying a default label or a secondary label directly on shot-creation. Thus, labels can be assigned on-the-fly, which saves time and prevents the inadvertent forgetting of the work step. 

How you can benefit from using labels within the Pomfort ecosystem
Default and secondary label in “Shot Creation” preferences and “Create” buttons

Labels are transmitted automatically with project uploads to ShotHub and are also included in PFLA file exports. This simplifies passing on relevant label info to other departments. Consequently, staying within the Pomfort ecosystem across the entire digital imaging and dailies creation process has clear advantages over alternative workflows. 

Transmit Shots with Labels from Livegrade to Silverstack

Let’s explore how labels work across Pomfort products: After making a Livegrade project available in ShotHub, you can access the shot labels in the right sidebar within the ShotHub interface.

How you can benefit from using labels within the Pomfort ecosystem
Labels are displayed in the right sidebar in ShotHub

You can then fetch the associated looks directly from the ShotHub cloud to link them to the right clips in Silverstack when performing the look matching step.

Looks can also be carried from Livegrade to Silverstack with a file-based workflow via a PFLA file (Pomfort Look Archive) that also contains associated labels. However, using ShotHub to facilitate the process has many benefits: Firstly, you can pick single folders/bins for a more precise matching process. Secondly, you don’t need to send files around. Lastly, ShotHub is always up to date once bringing the Livegrade project to the ShotHub cloud.

Only Use Looks with a Certain Label when Matching Looks 

The look matching wizard allows to only take looks with certain labels into account for the matching process. 

How you can benefit from using labels within the Pomfort ecosystem
Only use looks with labels is possible in the Look Matching dialog

By using different labels in Livegrade and being able to filter them in Silverstack’s look matching step, you can keep high flexibility in transmitting only the right shots (and associated looks) to the Silverstack clips.

Please keep in mind that the filter for the labels in the look matching step is part of a different domain than the use of labels for clips inside Silverstack, which is also possible.

Labels from Livegrade are not primarily intended to be taken over as clip labels in Silverstack as the usage, and therefore naming can differ widely. The following section will look at the general use of labels for clips in Silverstack.

The Use of Labels in Silverstack 

Silverstack allows setting labels for clips in the library.  

How you can benefit from using labels within the Pomfort ecosystem
Different labels in the clips table view or setting a label for a clip in the user info tab of the right bar

Label names can be customized in the “General” tab of the preferences, similar to Livegrade. You can set a label by selecting one or multiple clips and choose a label dot or the label name from the popover menu.

Thus, you can categorize clips flexibly in the Silverstack library. Labels can be used for QC by marking different clips’ qualities, marking that a clip needs a detailed check afterward or for certain clip categories like VFX shots.

By building, for example, a filter expression in the library search or using labels in a smart folder, you can then also display only the label(s) in question.

All in all, using labels is a very powerful and flexible tool for DITs and dailies operators. Staying within the Pomfort ecosystem allows to transmit label info conveniently and simplifies the overall production workflow.